Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire

Description
Hampstead Marshall, a parish in Berks, on the Kennet and Avon Canal, near the boundary with Hants, 4 miles WSW from Newbury, and 3 NW from Rintbury station on the G.W.R. It has a post office under Newbury; money order and telegraph office, Newbury. Acreage, 1824 of land and 28 of water; population, 219. Nearly the whole of the property belongs to the Earl of Craven, belonged formerly to the Earls Marshal of England, took thence the second part of its present name, became first associated with the earl-marshalship in the time of Henry I., when the manor was given to Gilbert de Clare, earl of Pembroke, and father of Strongbow, king of Leinster, passed from his family to successively the Bigods, the Montacutes, the Haukesfords, and the Parrys, and was purchased in 1620 by the Cravens. A stately mansion on it after the model of Heidelburg Castle in Germany, and designed by Sir Balthazer Gerbier, was built in 1626-65, but was burned in 1718, and was succeeded by the present mansion, Hampstead House, which was erected in 1720 by the Earl of Craven. It has since been greatly enlarged, and it is surrounded by a deer park of over 400 acres. The living is a rectory, united to that of Enborne in the diocese of Oxford; joint gross yearly value, £478 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Craven. The church is ancient but good, and has the tomb of Sir B. Gerbier. There is a small Congregational chapel.